Community Builders Tulsa do amazing professional tilework but if you fancy a go yourself. Here are some tips.
Replacing tiles is an effective way to spruce up a bathroom without having to shell out a fortune. The tiles make it look nice and new and you can also make it striking depending upon which tiles you choose. However, tiling is harder than it looks, and it can be beneficial to call in the experts. If you do decide to go it alone however, here are some handy tips.
If you believe you have the level of DIY skills required, then investing in the correct equipment is the next vital step. The next job that you will have to undertake is making sure all of the walls are smooth and in good condition. If plaster has come loose then you will need to sand or fill the walls as appropriate. If you are tiling onto new plaster the side of your trowel tool will help you to get the tile adhesive to stick the two together.
If you are tiling a shower, the task again does become more difficult and you may want to call an expert in to help you place a vapour barrier or moisture resistant drywall behind the tiles. Ceramic tiles especially can become porous as time goes on and damp problems could occur that could affect the whole area.
Right so let’s begin, the easiest way is to start with the longest wall that you will be tiling and measure the middle of it. Mark this with chalk, do this using a plumb line as if you do not get this right the whole lot of tiling could look lopsided and unsightly. If you don’t do this, you could be relying on your celling to be straight when it may well not be. Your tiling should start from the centreline working upwards towards the ceiling.
You should be using a tile adhesive to work upwards to complete the first row of tiles. Carefully ensure that each one is squarely in place and apply pressure to every part of the tile, make sure you do that quickly as the adhesive will dry pretty fast and you don’t want to end up with a wonky tile or two. If you are not an expert, you might want to try this as a dummy run with no adhesive to get your positioning and timing right before the main job. To help in this task you can also buy tile spacers which will help you position the tiles effectively.
The real challenge will come when you get to the tricky areas where you don’t need to use a full tile. Here you need to measure the space in two places and cut the tile in line with these measurements. Tile cutters are available in all good DIY stores. The easiest way to tile around sinks for the non -professional is to move them.
As you can see it is not a straightforward job and by the time you have bought all of the available tools and gadgets and have stressed yourself out, it might be more worthwhile hiring a professional to do the job.
